To the OP or anyone else who finds it a grind. If you are trying to get the materials to engineer a module in a set timescale (e.g. in a 2 hour window or by this weekend) then I can see why you may think it's a grind although personally in the entire time I've played I have never felt any part of the game is a grind.
However, if you just play the game doing other stuff and you're not in a hurry then you will come across the materials even when you're not looking for them.
For example, yesterday I was traveling to Nauni to do some rescue missions and along the way some USS's popped up. I chose to drop into them, even though it would slow my journey down slightly and I was able to pick up some materials I was wanting. If I was deliberately looking for these USS's then they probably wouldn't show up, lol.
Another example. Yesterday, I was driving around on the surface of a planet yesterday just to enjoy the new look of the planets. Whilst I was doing that, I shot a few rocks that I came across and again I got some materials I was wanting.
In both examples I wasn't doing any deliberate searching and yet I gathered a good amount of materials I was after. The great thing about the new update with the change to material storage limits is I can now pick up materials I'm not after and not even know what they are used for and then when the time comes to do a different kind of engineering I may find I already have that material.
It's a different way of playing the game and may not be your type of play style but it does make gathering materials more relaxing and fun. Just a suggestion.
Argh, ok, I'm going to regret this but I'll bite. Play my own way, and all that...
So mat storage has changed a bit, most of this will relate to the previous version with the 1000 mats hard cap, and yes, I know about the new system, but I digress...
I often don't know what I want until I discover it in some way (talk on the forums, youtube vid - whatever - I truly hate mats gathering so it's not something I'll do on purpose just to try out new engineering mods). When I do discover that new cool toy I must have, though, I get a bee in my bonnet. Now, yes, I will have randomly managed to get 3/4 of the mats needed (though I'll have to start at L1 for everything now *eyeroll* but anyways...).
Guaranteed, I will be missing the super rare mat, and it will take forever to get just a few units - that's after I figure out where to find them.
Then there's the mats I have to keep finding (Arsenic, Datamined wake exceptions etc for G5 Long distance FSD, then, on top of that, for long distance jump boosts...).
Now, if would actually be ok if there were tools, ways to find higher concentrations of said mats, but no, just sit outside a busy station and scan random ships for an hour per 3 Datamined Wake Exception. Drive around the rims of large craters for Arsenic and pollonium etc for an hour or two for each drop... It gets boring real quick.
I deal with it, because I enjoy other parts of the game, but man, for me, the gathering is just painful. It's not even about the speed or repetition, it's about the process. I'm happy to race around the Nurburgring for hours on end in race car games - doesn't get grindier than that - but it's fun, the process of trying to gain that extra hundredth of a second on the next lap, braking a tad later, getting on the throttle a touch earlier, balancing the fine line between getting it right and spinning off to a wrecked car...
This is what's lacking, for me, in ED, the process of gathering is, generally, dull, and I'm unlikely to "just find" random mats that I need playing the game the way I play.
As I've said, it's just me, and my style, but I really think people need to appreciate that not all of us play the game in a way where the mats we will need tomorrow are magically all dropped today by doing whatever we feel like.
Z...
